Friday, May 24, 2019

Prosecutors are bringing a slate of new charges against Julian Assange, including alleged violations of the Espionage Act, raising the stakes for his prospective extradition from the United Kingdom.

A grand jury in Northern Virginia has returned a superseding indictment with17 more chargesagainst the WikiLeaks founder. It follows an earlier case brought against Assange in connection with the alleged help he gave to then-Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to compromise U.S. government computer networks.

Assange is being charged for what officials call his "alleged complicity in illegal acts" involving Manning and "for agreeing and attempting to obtain" information that compromised national security.

Manning provided Assange with war logs, State Department cables, assessments of Guantanamo detainees and other materials.

Said U.S. Attorney Zach Terwilliger: "The United States has only charged Assange with publishing a narrow set of classified documents" that included the names of innocent people, such as dissidents and human rights activists.

"Assange is not charged simply because he is a publisher," Terwilliger said.

The new charges

The charges announced on Thursday all relate to chapters in the history of WikiLeaks before its involvement in Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election.

They include allegations that Assange violated the Espionage Act provisions that prohibit a conspiracy to obtain, receive and disclose national defense information; charges related to the attempted cracking of computer passwords; and unlawful receipt of sensitive information such as State Department communications and Defense Department logs.

Prosecutors also added a charge related to the disclosure of national defense information that included the unredacted names of human sources in places such as China, Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Court documents described a series of chats between Assange and Manning in March 2010 in which Assange allegedly encourages Manning more than once to obtain documents.

The defense

Assange has long argued that he is a journalist no different from any other reporter protected by press freedom rights in the West or the First Amendment in the United States.

The U.S. criminal case boils down to a reporter — Assange — encouraging a source — Manning — to give him a story, Assange and his attorneys argue. That's not only not against the law, they and supporters say, but also going forward would cause a deep chill in the ability of the press to report on the government.

British police officers stand on duty outside the Embassy of Ecuador in London on May 20. Assange was arrested last month after being pushed out the embassy, where he had been living since 2012.

Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images

"These unprecedented charges demonstrate the gravity of the threat the criminal prosecution of Julian Assange poses to all journalists in their endeavor to inform the public about actions that have [been] taken by the U.S. government," said Assange attorney Barry Pollack.

Bruce Brown, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, reiterated the possible risk to journalists.

"Any government use of the Espionage Act to criminalize the receipt and publication of classified information poses a dire threat to journalists seeking to publish such information in the public interest, irrespective of the Justice Department's assertion that Assange is not a journalist," he said.

"This is an extraordinary escalation of the Trump administration's attacks on journalism, and a direct assault on the First Amendment," he said.

Manning, meanwhile, is in custody in Northern Virginia after apparently refusing to cooperate with the U.S. Attorney's Office in the grand jury proceeding that yielded the indictment unsealed on Thursday.

Swedish and American authorities both are asking London to extradite Assange to face criminal charges.

Swedish prosecutors reopened a investigation into rape allegations against Assange once he left the embassy. It isn't clear which capital — Stockholm or Washington — will take priority with British authorities in evaluating whether to extradite him.

He lied to me and to the American people during Congressional testimony. He
lied about his department’s commitment to protecting the rights of
transgender Americans. I’m a former prosecutor, and I take lies
seriously.

On Tuesday, when Carson
appeared before the House Financial Services Committee, I asked him about
HUD’s “equal-access” rule -- which protects transgender Americans in HUD
programs (including homeless shelters) from discrimination.

I’ve seen what Donald Trump’s administration thinks of LGTBQ rights, and I
was worried that HUD may gut the equal-access rule. But Ben Carson said: “I’m
not currently anticipating changing the rule.”

This was a lie. The very next day, his department
proposed a new rule: to let federally funded shelters deny transgender people
access.

Ben Carson made a false statement before Congress because he didn’t want to
answer for his administration’s discriminatory policies.

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Last night’s CNN town hall reminded me of
how we started this journey.

From the early days of our Senate campaign,
I remember traveling solo from town to town, just asking to meet with anyone
who’d spend some time with me. I had the chance to first introduce myself and
learn from mayors, farmers, students, doctors, Uber drivers, musicians,
artists, teachers, librarians — people from every walk of life.

Now we
want to hear from more of you as we run to serve in the White House.
Listening to all of you share your stories and perspectives shapes my thinking
on how we move our country forward to solve the serious challenges ahead.

But I
know not everyone can come to one of our town halls.
And as much as I’d like to personally visit every county in America, as we did
in Texas, it may not be possible in the time we have. So we’ve come up with the
next best thing.

We just
opened up our website, social media, and email inboxes to questions. We’re
calling it our Town Hall for America, and you can join in right now.

In every answer, I will strive to be as
honest and thorough as possible. And with every question, my team and I will
learn more about what’s important to the people we are seeking to serve in the
White House.

When I served on El Paso city council, we
held bilingual town halls once a week. We did monthly ones when I got elected
to Congress. In our Senate run, we put on more than 328 public town meetings,
and we did it in every county of Texas. Now we’ve already visited more counties
in Iowa than any other candidate in the field.

We did that because public feedback and
input is the heart of our democracy.

Talking
to people about why you support Bernie Sanders sounds simple, but it's vitally
important. These conversations can sway undecided voters, get new people
involved in our campaign, and grow our movement.

That’s
why volunteers across the country are organizing community canvasses using the
BERN app — so you can talk Bernie 2020 anywhere and everywhere. And you can attend a community canvass
near you soon!

At
these community canvasses you'll meet up with other volunteers, do a quick
training on how to canvass and use the BERN app, and then start talking to
people. You'll be able to keep track of your conversations with the BERN app so
that we can follow up with every Bernie supporter to make sure they’re
registered to vote, and give undecided voters more information about Bernie and
what he stands for.

Having
hundreds of thousands of these conversations across the country is how we’ll
build the largest grassroots electoral movement in history to win the
Democratic nomination for Bernie, state by state, and then take the White House
back from Donald Trump.

We'll
be reaching out shortly after you sign up to provide you with all of the
resources you need to have these meaningful conversations with people in your
area.

Talking
to the people in our community will take work, but if we're in it together, we
can win this election.

This year, a bipartisan majority in the New Hampshire legislature voted
to repeal our antiquated death penalty law, as well as pass a Paid
Family and Medical Leave bill. Both of these important pieces of
legislations were met by a veto from the Governor.

Recently, friends, activists, and concerned citizens have reached out
asking me about what they can do right now to make a difference. Here's
what I suggest: